PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT ON HIGHER MARLEY ROAD

Dear Supporter,

This is just a brief note to update you on what is happening with regard to the planning application to build 98 houses on Higher Marley Road.

First and foremost we’re sorry to say that it has not gone away! Despite the fact that the application has not yet been considered by the EDDC Development Committee the developers are clearly still pushing it forward and we anticipate that if may well go to committee either on the meeting scheduled for 2nd November or 8th December.

What’s happening with the EDDC Local Plan?
The EDDC Local Plan is the overall planning document that guides the development of housing in the district. The latest version of this plan sets out the number of houses that are needed in the next 5 years and the sites that will be used to meet this need and the good news is that the site at Higher Marley Road is not among them. The bad news is that the Local Plan as submitted by EDDC needs to be approved by a central government inspector and he is yet to give his view (it is expected this will happen in the next 2-3 weeks). If he approves the plan then this will be very helpful and will make it much more likely that the site on Higher Marley Road will be refused permission. If not then it’s still possible to block the development but it will be tougher.

What have the developers been doing?
We cannot see everything that goes on but they have clearly had discussions with Devon County Highways Authority (CHA) and EDDC’s Tree officer in an attempt to have these bodies withdraw/reduce their earlier objections. As a result Devon CHA have now said that in principle they will not object to access being granted although we disagree with much of their logic (see below). The developers have also written to the government inspector who is reviewing the EDDC Local Plan saying they believe the area needs more sites to be made available and that Higher Marley Road should be one of them!

What are we doing?
We have been monitoring what has been happening and keeping our local councillors informed (who continue to be very supportive).

A number of our group met with a representative of Devon CHA and Devon Constabulary during a site visit in September to discuss the safety issues resulting from the Traffic on Higher Marley Road. Given the comments that were made during the visit we were very disappointed by the eventual submission that was made by Devon Highways and have written a response pointing out inconsistencies in the submission and suggesting other work that needs to be carried out before any access for the new development is granted
.

Whether the application goes before the November or December EDDC Development Committee we are geared up and ready to submit our final objection letter in the run up to the meeting and to speak on the day. We believe we have a very strong case why the Higher Marley Road site should not be developed (even if the Inspector says that more sites are needed) and we will make sure it is heard.

Due to the cost of printing and the lack of any dramatic news we will not be producing a “letter box drop” version on this occasion so do please pass on the contents of this email to anyone else you believe maybe interested.

We’ll continue to keep you posted of any developments but if you have any questions or comments in the meantime then please let us know.